Fire Guts Reminder Of Passionist Presence
by Michael Wojcik
[From The Catholic Advocate, November 2, 1994]
The locals sometime talk about the five separate fires that have ravaged St. Michael's Monastery property during the past century.
But Father Kilian McGowan likes to remember the Passionist Fathers and Brothers' Union City monastery as a "friend" he knew for the final 50 years of its 130-year existence.
In its final chapter, the now-abandoned monastery on Aug. 19 lost its battle against a three-alarm blaze that destroyed the structure and threatened to spread to nearby buildings.
Nevertheless, Father McGowan, the Passionists' social concerns director, recalls the monastery with fond words in a recent history of the building.
"It had been a holy place, rich in history and achievements...," he wrote, adding that it played a part "in helping me achieve my own personal destiny."
Although the Passionists sold the building in 1984, many residents had fond memories as they watched it burn in August, Father McGowan said.
"...Many watchers of the conflagration mentioned, some with tears in their eyes, what the monastery had meant to them and their families over the years," he wrote.
The three-story monastery became a much-loved center of activity and was considered Hudson County's "Mother Church" earlier this century, he said.
In 1851, the Passionists arrived in what was then West Hoboken, purchased property and completed the monastery in 1864, according to the order's historical records.
It served as the Passionists' seat of leadership for the Northeast and, along with other regional monasteries, trained men for the priesthood and priests and brothers for missionary work abroad.
"It was the focus of our communal life," Provincial Archivist Father Morgan Hanlon said of the monastery.
Throughout the 20th century, Passionists have given witness to Christ in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia and the Philippines.
Religious life at the monastery centered around prayer. Often, neighbors could hear religious chanting float from the chapel at 2 a.m.
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